30-DAY SONG CHALLENGE DAY EIGHT

30-Day Song Challenge Day Eight

Day eight of the 30-day song challenge and we’re firing on all cylinders now, aren’t we! Aren’t we?Today’s challenge is to pick a favourite song about drugs or alcohol.

The 30 day song challenge is something I saw on Instagram about picking songs from given prompts over the space of 30 consecutive days. I came up with the idea of writing a blog post every day in correspondence with my song choices. You can find my previous seven picks on the blog home page.

30-Day Song Challenge

Day Eight

Day eight, a day of drugs and alcohol, two subjects that have had countless songs written about them. I’d estimate that half of the music from the 1960s was about either one or the other. I could say that I don’t know anything about drugs or alcohol but in the spirit of honesty, that would be a lie. I have dabbled…there you go, I’ve said it. I’ve had a dabble, a dibble, dobble, dabble. I never did anything classed as ‘hard’, I’ve partaken in a soft dabble.

I was never a ‘fiend’ but I’ve gone further than Bill Clinton and actually inhaled. For a few years I inhaled so much that I forgot to breath out. I wouldn’t advise that, as forgetting to exhale is a sure fire way to stop breathing. A hundred times out of a hundred, stopping breathing results in death so don’t do it.

I’d never tell anyone to not do drugs, each to there own and all that, but I wish I’d stopped earlier. I don’t regret it but I feel I could have done a bit more for myself if I’d stopped sooner. They certainly took my focus away and I was continously in the ‘planning’ stage of my ‘comedy career’.

(Don’t Do It)

Out of all the songs that I could have picked about drugs or alcohol I’ve chosen White Lines (Don’t Do It) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Grandmaster Flash or Joseph Saddler, as you’re more likely to know him by, had left Sugar Hill Records a year earlier. His name was added without his consent to help boost sales.

White Lines (Don’t Do It) By Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

The song was released as a single in the UK in 1984, a year after its release in the U.S. and reached number 7 in the charts. I must admit I thought it was quite a bit earlier than that but I’ve contacted Wikipedia and spoke to a man there called, Melvyn who assured me that it isn’t a mistake.

I’d have been 10 years old when this was released in the UK but I don’t really remember it at the time. I probably had more pressing concerns such as riding my bike and trying not to wee myself in school. But as time has gone on and my love for Hip Hop has grown this has, of course, been one of the tracks of early hip hop.

White Lines

But I also chose White Lines as I am now on day eight of this challenge and have yet to pick a single hip hop/rap track. I had to remedy this as it’s a genre that I have loved since hearing ‘Bring The Noise’ by Public Enemy in 1988 and De La Soul’s 3 Feet High And Rising album the following year.

Unlike many tracks about drugs or alcohol though, White Lines is an anti-drugs track rather than many others that just tell us to hoof them us. What I didn’t know was that the song was originally written as a celebration of the cocaine fuelled party lifestyle. It was only later that the “Don’t Do It” lyrics were added as a concession to commercial success.

So have a listen, I’m off to clean my crack pipe.

If you’ve enjoyed my ramblings please subsribe to my email list and never miss a post, it would give meaning to my life and keep me off the drugs. You can also find previous days in this challenge on my blog home page.

I’ve also started a Spotify playlist which I will add to every day as I go on with this challenge.